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Voyages of Discovery

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Explorers, The Most Exciting Voyages of Discovery

Explorers, The Most Exciting Voyages of Discovery

by Andrea de Porti

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 184 PAGES

Featuring the richly illustrated stories of 22 luminaries, including Ernest Shackleton, Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hillary, Thor Heyerdahl, and Roald Amundsen, each accompanied by a brief biography, maps and photographs. (EXP35, $29.95)

Voyages of Discovery

Voyages of Discovery

by David Boyle

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 144 PAGES

Splendidly illustrated in color, this compact chronicle of the Golden Age of European exploration (1492-1522) traces the voyages of Columbus, Magellan and others to Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. Facsimile documents include ships' logs, drawings by explorers and letters home. (EXP90, $24.95)

Columbus, The Four Voyages

Columbus, The Four Voyages

by Laurence Bergreen

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 422 PAGES

Though everyone knows that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the gutsy, politically savvy, ferociously religious and increasingly deluded Admiral of the Ocean Seas organized three more daring voyages in his quixotic quest for a water route to Asia, all recounted in gripping detail by Bergreen, noted biographer of Marco Polo and Magellan. (EXP93, $35.00)

Explorers of the Nile

Explorers of the Nile

by Tim Jeal

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 592 PAGES

The biographer of Stanley and Livingstone, Tim Jeal widens his scope in this spirited new history of the great 19th-century quest for the origins of the Nile, covering the many expeditions and complex rivalries of Burton and Speke, Livingstone and Stanley and other Victorian adventurers with panache. (AFR287, $32.50)

Bligh, William Bligh in the South Seas

Bligh, William Bligh in the South Seas

by Anne Salmond

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 528 PAGES

In this well-told, prodigiously researched tale, Salmon sheds new insight into the mutiny aboard the Bounty and on Bligh's remarkable 3,000-mile journey by small open boat, bringing the role of the Pacific Islanders to the forefront. (PAC305, $39.95)

Bering, The Russian Discovery of America

Bering, The Russian Discovery of America

by Orcutt Frost

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • HARD COVER
  • 330 PAGES

The first modern biography of the great explorer -- and an excellent account of still little-known regions of Kamchatka and the Russian Far East. The author draws on new evidence to reinvigorate the life and adventures of the seafaring Dane. (SIB33, $35.00)

Captain Cook, Master of the Seas

Captain Cook, Master of the Seas

by Frank McLynn

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 490 PAGES

McLynn re-creates the remarkable voyages that took the famous navigator from his native England to the remote Pacific, showing hiim to be a brave and brilliant seaman, who transcendied his humble beginnings as a deckhand and triumphed through good fortune, courage, and talent. (PAC237, $35.00)

1493

1493

by Charles C. Mann

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • HARD COVER
  • 532 PAGES

Mann's eye-opening tale of the great Columbian Exchange, the biological tsunami unleashed by the introduction of foreign species of plants and animals both in Europe, and especially, in the Americas. (NAM70, $30.50)

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe

by Glynis Ridley

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 291 PAGES

Ridley (Clara's Grand Tour) delivers rich historical drama in this sparkling biography of the young French peasant -- and knowledgable plantswoman in her own right -- who disguised herself as a teenage boy to join her lover, the brilliant, wily botanist Philibert Commerson, on commander Louis-Antoine de Bougainville's 1765 expedition around the world. (FRN995, $15.00)

 
Atlas of Exploration

Atlas of Exploration


by Oxford University Press

  • REFERENCE
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 256 PAGES

Bold modern maps, choice photographs and archival illustrations trace the history of exploration in this authoritative roundup of discovery. Experts, including Ann Savours (Antarctic) and John Ure (South America), provide lively commentary. (EXP63, $50.00)

Across the Top of the World

Across the Top of the World


by James P. Delgado

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

Covering all the major expeditions in detail, and written with passion and authority, this richly illustrated history by James Delgado covers the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage, from the disaster of the Franklin Expedition, to the triumph of Roald Amundsen, all the way up to present-day research. (ARC61, $19.95)

Explorations, Great Moments of Discovery from the Royal Geographical Society

Explorations, Great Moments of Discovery from the Royal Geographical Society


by Royal Geographical Society

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 340 PAGES

Sometimes words aren't enough. This gift-worthy compendium, drawing on the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, features 300 photographs, many in color, some never before published, of the great expeditions, explorers and places, including an excellent section on polar exploration. (EXP34, $35.00)

Over the Edge of the World, Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the World

Over the Edge of the World, Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the World


by Laurence Bergreen

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 458 PAGES

This uncommonly well written biography brings to life the complex, difficult 16th-century Portuguese captain and his discoveries. Bergreen follows the great navigator from his origins in Seville and on his voyages to the Americas, and through the Pacific. (WLD44, $15.99)

Sea of Glory, America's Voyage of Discovery: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

Sea of Glory, America's Voyage of Discovery: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842


by Nathaniel Philbrick

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

An accomplished, vivid history of an around-the-world expedition commanded by Charles Wilkes. (PAC140, $16.00)

The Book of Exploration

The Book of Exploration


by Ray Howgego

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2009
  • HARD COVER
  • 360 PAGES

Author of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Exploration, Howgego here chooses 150 of the most significant journeys, setting the stories alongside period illustrations, maps, journal entries and photographs. (EXP74, $50.00)

Voyage of the Beagle

Voyage of the Beagle


by Charles Darwin

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 468 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The wide-eyed tale of a young man on a five-year voyage that changed his life -- and our way of thinking about the world. First published in 1839, it's still a marvelous introduction to the wildlife, nature and allure of South America. (GPS02, $12.95)

Voyaging, Southward from the Strait of Magellan

Voyaging, Southward from the Strait of Magellan


by Rockwell Kent

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

An illustrated account of Rockwell's foolhardy voyage with a madman through magnificent Tierra del Fuego in a jury-rigged lifeboat. Both the text and striking woodcut illustrations communicate this dangerous landscape's dynamic character. (CHI29, $19.95)

Darwin's Armada, Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution

Darwin's Armada, Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution


by Iain McCalman

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 432 PAGES

McCalman writes winningly of the lives, times and travels of Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. All three younger men, important in the history of science, were inspired by Darwin and, like him, set out to explore the world: Huxley aboard the Rattlesnake in Australia and New Guinea; Wallace in the Amazon and throughout Southeast Asia; and Darwin's good friend Hooker, later director of Kew Gardens, was a naturalist aboard the Erebus and Terror on James Clark Ross's voyage to the Antarctic. (NAT181, $18.95)

Those Who Dared

Those Who Dared


by Richard Nelsson

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2010
  • HARD COVER
  • 250 PAGES

With contributions by William Golding, Espeth Huxley, Peter Fleming and other luminaries, these amazing tales of mostly British derring-do chronicle exploration over the last 200 years -- as they unfolded in the pages of the Guardian or The Observer. (EXP75, $26.95)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.